1. Disgraced takes place in 2011-2012 in New York City. The play focuses around the lives of Amir and Emily, Amir’s nephew Abe/Hussein, and their friends Isaac and Jory. All of the play takes place within Amir and Emily’s spacious apartment in the East Side, and most of the action develops over the course of one dinner between the two couples. Disgraced deals with Amir’s internal conflict as a self-professed assimilated Pakistani-American, though it is evident that he cannot come to terms with his racial or religious identity. Throughout the play, Amir discusses the conflicting ideals of Muslim culture when viewed from internal and external sources, “self-hatred”, and Islamophobia in American society.
2. The intrusion would be Amir deciding to give a quote to the New York Times in order to help out a local imam who was jailed on suspicion of funneling money to terrorist organizations. This event is the spark that leads to increasing conflict between Amir and Emily, Amir getting drunk and angry at the dinner party, and ultimately the reason for his unemployment. This decision is something that goes against all of Amir’s efforts to distance himself from his Pakistani and Muslim background.
3. This is the day that Amir decides to support the local imam, and subsequently deals with an internal conflict over his identity as not only a Pakistani former Muslim, but as a former Muslim negotiating his identity in America.
4. What is the dramatic question that should be answered by the end of the play?
Are the forces that make up Amir’s identity ever able to be cohesive? Are these two identities so opposite that they can never coexist?
How does Muslim xenophobia alter the way that Muslims see themselves?
5. Provide an illustration of the two kinds of exposition that the play has in it. Exposition that everyone knows would be Amir and Abe changing their names in hopes of distancing themselves from their background. Emily is aware of both of these efforts, as are the two men of each other’s choices. This becomes a hypocritical argument point between both Abe and Amir, as they claim that one or the other has “abandoned their people” and Amir changed his name in order to advance his career. Amir’s bosses do not know about this name change, with Mort assuming that his new last name, “Kapoor”, meant that he was Hindu. Isaac also assumes that Amir is Muslim based only off a misconstrued public statement, and Amir has to correct him in that he has renounced his faith.
Exposition that is revealed by the character and is a surprise would be Amir discussing his childhood crush and his mother’s rebuke of the young Jewish girl whom Amir had a crush on. Amir tells this story to Abe in order to highlight that the religion they were raised in isn’t something that should be falsely elevated to be good. Amir’s story angers Emily in two ways, in that she says there is still an artistic appreciation and goodness in Islamic culture. She is also surprised because she never felt any ill-will with his mother, who “kissed her on her death bed” and was always nice to Emily. Amir’s mother embodies the competing ideals of actual life experience versus the fundamental teachings of any certain religion on how you should view people.
6. The most theatrical moment in the play would be Amir beating Emily, and the raw violence that it illustrates for the audience. This scene is important because it is representative of the immense repression that Amir forced upon himself. Amir socially, religiously, and ethnically rejected his background and who others assumed him to “be” (which, in most cases, was an assumption of Muslim faith). Amir is beating Emily, who acts as the embodiment of an outside and incorrect assumption of Muslim heritage. Amir’s actual experience being raised Muslim highlights many negative assumptions that Protestant or Jewish Americans hold, while Emily and Isaac condescendingly tell Amir that he is wrong about his own former religion. Emily also embodies Amir’s goals of assimilation – in that he is married to a white non-Muslim American, has a high-paying job, and essentially has the economic achievements of the “American Dream”. This scene also connects to Amir’s outburst that his “jihadist opinions” (as Isaac calls them) are rooted in something deeper than memory and are “tribal” or keyed in as a second ideological nature. This includes several earlier mentions of wife-beating and the subservient role that women have compared to their husbands. Amir falls into a shameful self-hatred by the end of the play and it is further hardened by Emily’s confession that her hopes about Amir and her work were “naïve”, and Amir is left alone afterwards.
7. List some of the themes of the play.
Race and Religion
Immigrant identity
Cultural responsibility
Islamophobia
8. Amir, initially, wants to be successful at his job and eventually make partner in his law firm. This desire is what initially makes him hesitant to speak out for the imam that Abe brings to him. Amir is tied to his phone, constantly worrying about acquisition deals going through, and is a workaholic who constantly covers for his boss, Mort. This devolves into a “me against society” obstacle in that Amir’s public statement of support becomes misconstrued and the public perception of his actions makes the law firm deem him as “duplicitous”.
Amir then finds himself in a “me against myself” confrontation when grappling with his identity as a renounced Muslim American. The dinner party brings these issues to a head, and there a heated argument between Amir and Isaac, his friend. Amir grows frustrated with an apologetic or overly-romanticized view of Islamic culture and drunkenly states that there is a “tribal hate” that he grew up with and was taught to believe. He includes images and statements of being “proud” during the World Trade Center Attack and believing that Jews were the most hated group of people. Amir’s efforts to repress his background, renounce his faith, and change his name ultimately fail as everyone around him is disgusted by his behavior at the party. Emily’s affair with Isaac pushes him to the breaking point as he unleashes his rage into a physical assault against Emily. Amir’s “me against myself” confrontation is not solved, and is re-embodied as a “me against society” issue with Abe’s questioning by the FBI and Amir continuing to try and reconcile his actions with his identity.
9. The most pertinent image in the play would be Velasquez’s “Portrait of Juan de Pareja”, as this image “bookends” the play. The “Portrait” is first interpreted by Emily, who paints her husband Amir in the vain of this image, and tries to explain to him that it isn’t “weird” that she is drawing what was essentially a slave. Their argument revolves around the “semantics” of whether he was a Moor, an assistant, or a slave, with Amir giving a stronger impression that Pareja was still socially beneath Velasquez and always would be. Velasquez painting his assistant with exceeding amounts of detail did not change the power structure in their relationship together, which Amir – at the conclusion of Disgraced – can relate to. The issue of his ethnic background was always an issue in his marriage with Emily, as something they could “never talk about” even when it bubbled to the surface during heated arguments. Amir is forced to look at this painting of himself in the end of the play, after Emily leaves him and he beats her. I think that this image turns the idea of America “disgracing” Abe and Amir’s people into Amir disgracing his own people and even himself. He is left looking at this painting and has to judge whether society has put him in the role of the “angry Muslim” or if his repression has ultimately led him to this position.
10.The most interesting and influential “family relationship” in Disgraced would be a relationship with a person’s ethnic background or “their people”. Abe/Hussein shames Amir for forgetting “their people” and simply going along with the stereotype that America wants them to be and being complicit with the Islamophobia that is around them. Amir’s hesitation to help the imam is shameful. Amir takes this as hypocrisy, as Abe had Americanized his name in an effort to distance himself from his Pakistani-Muslim background. The idea that both of these men could be “right” and hypocritical illuminates the complex identities of transnational immigrants. There is a sort of permanent “cultural responsibility” and constant confrontation to the ethnic pasts of these people. Many immigrants are constantly pulled between feeling at home in America, and being singled out by American culture as “other”. Disgraced also emphasizes mixed-religious marriages and the “complications” that some families may feel as a result of this. Amir references Emily’s former boyfriend who her parents did not approve of because he was Spanish/African-American and did not speak English. Amir’s mother, too, represents this same idea in that she spit in her son’s face when he said he had a crush on a Jewish girl when he was six.
1. Disgraced takes place in 2011-2012 in New York City. The play focuses around the lives of Amir and Emily, Amir’s nephew Abe/Hussein, and their friends Isaac and Jory. All of the play takes place within Amir and Emily’s spacious apartment in the East Side, and most of the action develops over the course of one dinner between the two couples. Disgraced deals with Amir’s internal conflict as a self-professed assimilated Pakistani-American, though it is evident that he cannot come to terms with his racial or religious identity. Throughout the play, Amir discusses the conflicting ideals of Muslim culture when viewed from internal and external sources, “self-hatred”, and Islamophobia in American society.
2. The intrusion would be Amir deciding to give a quote to the New York Times in order to help out a local imam who was jailed on suspicion of funneling money to terrorist organizations. This event is the spark that leads to increasing conflict between Amir and Emily, Amir getting drunk and angry at the dinner party, and ultimately the reason for his unemployment. This decision is something that goes against all of Amir’s efforts to distance himself from his Pakistani and Muslim background.
3. This is the day that Amir decides to support the local imam, and subsequently deals with an internal conflict over his identity as not only a Pakistani former Muslim, but as a former Muslim negotiating his identity in America.
4. What is the dramatic question that should be answered by the end of the play?
5. Provide an illustration of the two kinds of exposition that the play has in it.
Exposition that everyone knows would be Amir and Abe changing their names in hopes of distancing themselves from their background. Emily is aware of both of these efforts, as are the two men of each other’s choices. This becomes a hypocritical argument point between both Abe and Amir, as they claim that one or the other has “abandoned their people” and Amir changed his name in order to advance his career. Amir’s bosses do not know about this name change, with Mort assuming that his new last name, “Kapoor”, meant that he was Hindu. Isaac also assumes that Amir is Muslim based only off a misconstrued public statement, and Amir has to correct him in that he has renounced his faith.
Exposition that is revealed by the character and is a surprise would be Amir discussing his childhood crush and his mother’s rebuke of the young Jewish girl whom Amir had a crush on. Amir tells this story to Abe in order to highlight that the religion they were raised in isn’t something that should be falsely elevated to be good. Amir’s story angers Emily in two ways, in that she says there is still an artistic appreciation and goodness in Islamic culture. She is also surprised because she never felt any ill-will with his mother, who “kissed her on her death bed” and was always nice to Emily. Amir’s mother embodies the competing ideals of actual life experience versus the fundamental teachings of any certain religion on how you should view people.
6. The most theatrical moment in the play would be Amir beating Emily, and the raw violence that it illustrates for the audience. This scene is important because it is representative of the immense repression that Amir forced upon himself. Amir socially, religiously, and ethnically rejected his background and who others assumed him to “be” (which, in most cases, was an assumption of Muslim faith). Amir is beating Emily, who acts as the embodiment of an outside and incorrect assumption of Muslim heritage. Amir’s actual experience being raised Muslim highlights many negative assumptions that Protestant or Jewish Americans hold, while Emily and Isaac condescendingly tell Amir that he is wrong about his own former religion. Emily also embodies Amir’s goals of assimilation – in that he is married to a white non-Muslim American, has a high-paying job, and essentially has the economic achievements of the “American Dream”. This scene also connects to Amir’s outburst that his “jihadist opinions” (as Isaac calls them) are rooted in something deeper than memory and are “tribal” or keyed in as a second ideological nature. This includes several earlier mentions of wife-beating and the subservient role that women have compared to their husbands. Amir falls into a shameful self-hatred by the end of the play and it is further hardened by Emily’s confession that her hopes about Amir and her work were “naïve”, and Amir is left alone afterwards.
7. List some of the themes of the play.
8. Amir, initially, wants to be successful at his job and eventually make partner in his law firm. This desire is what initially makes him hesitant to speak out for the imam that Abe brings to him. Amir is tied to his phone, constantly worrying about acquisition deals going through, and is a workaholic who constantly covers for his boss, Mort. This devolves into a “me against society” obstacle in that Amir’s public statement of support becomes misconstrued and the public perception of his actions makes the law firm deem him as “duplicitous”.
Amir then finds himself in a “me against myself” confrontation when grappling with his identity as a renounced Muslim American. The dinner party brings these issues to a head, and there a heated argument between Amir and Isaac, his friend. Amir grows frustrated with an apologetic or overly-romanticized view of Islamic culture and drunkenly states that there is a “tribal hate” that he grew up with and was taught to believe. He includes images and statements of being “proud” during the World Trade Center Attack and believing that Jews were the most hated group of people. Amir’s efforts to repress his background, renounce his faith, and change his name ultimately fail as everyone around him is disgusted by his behavior at the party. Emily’s affair with Isaac pushes him to the breaking point as he unleashes his rage into a physical assault against Emily. Amir’s “me against myself” confrontation is not solved, and is re-embodied as a “me against society” issue with Abe’s questioning by the FBI and Amir continuing to try and reconcile his actions with his identity.
9. The most pertinent image in the play would be Velasquez’s “Portrait of Juan de Pareja”, as this image “bookends” the play. The “Portrait” is first interpreted by Emily, who paints her husband Amir in the vain of this image, and tries to explain to him that it isn’t “weird” that she is drawing what was essentially a slave. Their argument revolves around the “semantics” of whether he was a Moor, an assistant, or a slave, with Amir giving a stronger impression that Pareja was still socially beneath Velasquez and always would be. Velasquez painting his assistant with exceeding amounts of detail did not change the power structure in their relationship together, which Amir – at the conclusion of Disgraced – can relate to. The issue of his ethnic background was always an issue in his marriage with Emily, as something they could “never talk about” even when it bubbled to the surface during heated arguments. Amir is forced to look at this painting of himself in the end of the play, after Emily leaves him and he beats her. I think that this image turns the idea of America “disgracing” Abe and Amir’s people into Amir disgracing his own people and even himself. He is left looking at this painting and has to judge whether society has put him in the role of the “angry Muslim” or if his repression has ultimately led him to this position.
10.The most interesting and influential “family relationship” in Disgraced would be a relationship with a person’s ethnic background or “their people”. Abe/Hussein shames Amir for forgetting “their people” and simply going along with the stereotype that America wants them to be and being complicit with the Islamophobia that is around them. Amir’s hesitation to help the imam is shameful. Amir takes this as hypocrisy, as Abe had Americanized his name in an effort to distance himself from his Pakistani-Muslim background. The idea that both of these men could be “right” and hypocritical illuminates the complex identities of transnational immigrants. There is a sort of permanent “cultural responsibility” and constant confrontation to the ethnic pasts of these people. Many immigrants are constantly pulled between feeling at home in America, and being singled out by American culture as “other”. Disgraced also emphasizes mixed-religious marriages and the “complications” that some families may feel as a result of this. Amir references Emily’s former boyfriend who her parents did not approve of because he was Spanish/African-American and did not speak English. Amir’s mother, too, represents this same idea in that she spit in her son’s face when he said he had a crush on a Jewish girl when he was six.